I'm posting a song a day from the Rise Up Singing songbook, which you may or may not know. It's a pretty invaluable resource for song leaders, and useful for anyone who likes to sing in groups.
The book doesn't include the melodies to the songs, just the lyrics and some chords, so I’m trying hard to find the tunes I don’t know, learn them, and post them on YouTube for anyone to learn. That’s where these videos are hosted; the blog is just pretty packaging.

And that's all there is to it. I didn't talk much in this video because I wasn't alone in the apartment, which makes me uncomfortble about talking to the camera. This is the last Hard Times & Blues song I'll do for a while, since other chapters need some loving too. Maybe a round. Maybe a family song. Sal, a good friend of mine in Vermont, recorded a Rise Up Singing song and sent it to me and I'm going to ask for her permission to post it on here this week too.

1 comment:

The other version of the chords also sounds really good, although different. Really the alternate set of chords goes with the adaptation of the song which the Animals covered, while the original has a different melody. I'm honestly not sure that I sing the original correctly, I certainly haven't been able to find a recording of it, but I found a way to sing it that fits the old chords.

My YouTube account. Know any songs in Rise Up Singing? Get on YouTube and post them; we'd get this done a lot more quickly together. No need to play guitar (I barely do). Just hum or whistle or kazoo the tune and Rise Up Singing has the rest.

3 days after starting this, I learned that Annie Patterson (co-editor with Peter Blood) has actually already recorded ALL 1200 songs herself, and you can buy her 20-CD set for 200$ (or 12$ per CD) on quakersong.org. It took Annie 3 whole years to do it, and she edited the book, so I support supporting her, if you see what I mean, and for real accuracy and quality you should get the CDs, but I'm still going to give it a shot here and see if I can't do it slo-and-lo-fi for free.